Traveller - Main
The Characters Special Agent Bruno Stoll A skilled spy and assassain who worked as a political officer for the Peoples Political Commissariat before being caught on a mission and having his existence disavowed. Captain Saron Heckler Career: 16 years in the Star Marines Homeworld: Landrin 4 (A Poor mined out industrial world) Age: 34 As a young lad he signed up for the marines fresh out of technical college and after 2 short years of basic training found himself fighting in the Rogans Gap massacre. He and his team were called to resolve a tense hostage crisis. They did a covert insertion and stormed the compound, killing the leader of the Liberators (a militant pro-democracy group based out of a remote settlement on the world of Trantor). They rescued most of the hostages, but several were killed in the firefight as the militants used them as human shields. For courage under fire he was promoted to Lance Corporal. However the raid coincided with an intelligence operation to bring down the militants bloodlessly from within causing a rift between the Peoples Political Commissariat and the Star Marines that has lingered ever since. After several years of mundane enforcement actions on the border, he distinguished himself again this time working on a Naval operation with Sun Lao. Term 2 - Successfully stormed a space-station helped Sun Lao breach the hull Term 3 - Stabbed an incompetent officer and replaced him Term 4 - Stabbed another incompetent superior and got a field promotion to replace him. Imprisonment - During a planetary assault he refused to kill innocent people and was ironically replaced by his corporal. Arrested for Gross insubordination in time of war. Stats: Skills: ' ' Skill Pt Total: 12 XP Spent: 12 XP: 4 Gear: · Weapon (Laser Rifle) – Tech level 8, Skill: Energy Rifles, Damage: 5D6, No Autofire, Mass 8Kg. Ranges: Hand to hand (-3), point blank (-1), from 3m-250m (0), 251m-500m (-2), over 500m (-4) This is a Class 3 Paramilitary grade weapons which is illegal in civilised areas. It is sufficiently large and bulky that it cannot be hidden. · Weapon (Autopistol) – Tech level 6, Skill: Slug Pistol, Damage: 3D6-3, No Autofire, Mass 0.5Kg. Ranges: Hand to hand (-1), point blank (0), from 3m-12m (0), 12-50m (-2), 51-250m (-4) · Gas grenades · Weapon (Combat Knife) – Tech level 1, Skill: Small blade, Damage 1D6+2 · Flak Jacket (6 armour) · WWII Russian Tank Commander’s outfit · Sharp black suit & shades · Medkit · Com Unit · IR Goggles · 38,300 credits · TAS membership · 18.2% of Stealth Ship “Black Pig” Sub Lietenant Sub Lao An intelligent and dedicated member of the Imperial Naval corps of Engineers. Who was arrested after his ship was destroyed. 4th Officer Vomisa Clarvo Typo A merchant mariner, who ran at a young age with a criminal syndicate and after falling heavily into debt tried to live an honest life. He and the people he went into business with worked tirelessly and earned a little money, which he supplemented by performing small services moving people and items between shipments for covert government agencies. This caught up to him finally when Agent Stoll's mission went corewards and he was arrested for smuggling, weapons trafficking and aiding and abetting a murderer and terrorist. The Black Pig An ex-scout ship formerly known as the Santa Maria. stripped down and rebuilt by the Vriterbei Crime Syndicate and sold to the protagonists by Temeka "the Grandmother of Crime" Galloway. Locations of The Third Imperium of Mankind The Ribbon An area of Charted space, cut off from oversight from the rest of the Imperium The Terminus Sub-sector (Where the players start) – 13 Systems *Trantor (subsector Capital) - From which Stoll and Typo were taken. *Adelie - The other rebel world, managed a more peaceful break-away but the loss of trade crippled their already weak economy, a situation that has led to widespread starvation. *Thorns *Cornerstone - The rebel world whose spaceport is under the control of the Vriterbei family (A very well organised criminal syndicate) and the planets surface is torn between dozens of anti-government factions who have been in perpetual warfare since breaking away. *Annwyn *Thule *Epsilon Zeranti *Jotunheim *Myanmar *Yomi *Takama Ga-Hara *Landrin *Nuevo Nevada The Victoria Sub-sector (Where the sector capital is to the anti-spinwards of the Terminus sector) – has over 20 systems including: *Neuquen (Sector Capital) *Niflheim *Wellington *Yakutsk *Midway *New Beijing The Bubble Settled by three 2000 ton passenger haulers - Neil Armstrong, Christopher Collumbus and Lin Sho (Each carrying 500 cold sleep passengers with less than half a ton of equipment each) and two similarly sized equipment hauler ships - Pegasus and Sleipnir (Which each held 500 tons of equipment and vehicles to support the collonisation), constructed with collonisation funds from Terra. Neither of these ships have ever been recovered. Visited so far *Thawout - The first place where humans settled. The orbital space-dock was constructed from one of the three ships that ferried people across the expanse that seperates the Ribbon from the Bubble. The station was cramped with a fairly small market. It was also one of the stop-off points for the annual Solar-sailing regatta. The inhabitents tended to be unusually comfortable with bio-tech enhancements and cybernetics as well as robotics and cybernetics. The station hosted a surprisingly large museum that charted the early history of settlement in this sector. *Jean - The inhabited planet is a barren one, with a thin toxic atmosphere. The spaceport above is large and shaped like a blosoming flower. With each "petal" being a near kilometer-long solar panel. The planet and station both seem to have a very small population, estimated at only a few thousand, but their needs are met by a vast number of Asimov units (A local term for AI enabled robots) The Story So Far Episode 1: Prison Break (Intro) - Simon, Adrian, Nick, Duncan and Rob The story begins on a prison ship bound for a deep-space gulag - this notorious prison hulk was origninally a bulk passenger ship that had had its drive engines ripped out and thousands of cells added. Set drifting in deep space it was generally aggreed to be unescapable. The only chance for freedom was to take over the prison ship before it arrived at the hulk. Our heros quickly overpowered the guards, killing three in the process. Episode 2: Meet the Boss - Simon, Adrian, Nick, Duncan and Rob In the chaos, one of the prisoners (who was dragged out of cryo-stasis mid-jump) died when the remaining guards slowly opened the airlocks. Two more were shot by Stoll and Vomisa for interfering in their plans. Of the remaining unfrozen prisoners there was a doctor, a zero-G construction worker, A smuggler and a man who worked for a local crime syndicate as an enforcer. They left the remainder of the criminals in cryo-statis. During the fight the enforcer (a man named Wren) was shot at and shot the PCs. When they eventually took the engine room, the rest of the guards and crew had escaped using the ships boat, put the ship in reverse and placed a few booby traps around the place. The PCs secured the ship, and made off for the nearest rebel star-system that was in reach. During the voyage they formed an uneasy alliance with the rest of the crew and discovered a map in the possessions of the guy who froze to death. The map detailed a series of rogue gas giants in the gap between the ribbon sector and the bubble sector. Allowing them to hop from star to star to reach an area of space that has not been explored by the Imperium for over 200 years. The Planet of Cornerstone was factious, with dozens of warring groups. Dominating it all from the Highport was Temeka Galloway. A crime lord who happened to have several ships for sale and a desire to buy the prison ship. After much wrangling, they eventually agreed to part exchange their old ship and purchase a 200 ton refurbished long-range scout ship. The former owner was an ex-scout captain who got into debt after drinking himself into a hole. The ship was named the Santa Maria. (they also picked up 20 tons of Titanium Raw materials, 1 ton of enriched Uranium radioactives and 10 tons of cheap personal computers manufactured goods (built into glasses). They agreed to pay 400,000 credits per month for 40 years. They stumbled across an old mining ship on one of the LaGrange points of a rogue gas giant. It was deserted and dead, but they did find the decayed body of HRH Prince Felldene of Starspire and 6 tons of an unknown herbal cargo. The computers were accidentally erased due to incompatible power supplies when it was removed for analysis. They decided to leave the cargo of 6 tons or herbs in the ship and depressurized it to protect the ship from further decay, but they took the two corpses with them (The second body, presumably the pilot was found in the turret area). Episode 3: Beyond the Fronteir - Simon, Adrian, Nick, Duncan and Rob They made another jump and detected some strange activity inside the gas giant. Sending in a probe drone, they found a number of large creatures living inside the gas giant, presumably without any sunlight for hundreds of years. After nearly a month of travel they arrived in Thawout, and found themselves in the middle of a solar-sail racing regatta. Picking up on the local news channels they found an Aslan sailor named K’krin leading the pack of six other racers. (incidentally learning that alchol makes Aslan go into an insane rage). K’Krin’s agent J’Jin put them through to the sailor. Monitoring the communications of the system they got an idea of the local surroundings. They got an invite to the council of Technocrats. The media and the council were interested in how they reached the Bubble, but the crew didn’t tell. They purchased an old model computer for 100,000, enough to use on the Mining ship they found. They hired J’Jin for a 5% commission as their agent. She suggested she could sell the computer glasses locally, but the best markets for the Radioactives and Titanium would be either Jean (The research station) or Arae (at their famous shipyards) They sold the library of films to the Solomon Broadcast corporation for 1.2 Million credits and purchased 5 x TL:12 Vacc suits for 50,000. Episode 4: The Veil Party and beyond. - Simon, Adrian, Nick, Duncan and Rob Still on Thaw-out they got some sleep and went shopping. First visiting the stations bank, they set up a biometric account. Typo managed to attract the eye of a local bank clerk named Clarice and they encountered their first unknown aliens, transhumans and uplifts in a long time. Although the green skinned space-babe turned out to be an underage girl who had had a body-dye job. Visiting a tailors and a gun shop they picked up a range of supplies including food, ammo for Stoll’s gun, a room-sweeper for Vomisa and some food. The party later that night was a Veil Party (in which everybody was in a pitch black room and forbidden from carrying lights, recording equipment or any form of vision enhancement). Only Captain Heckler and Captain Typo went, leaving the others to play cards back on the ship. They mingled and picked up some juicy rumours: *They were largely though to be unofficial spies for the Imperium (people were mixed on if that was a good thing or not) *The missing Prince was rumoured to have absconded with a vast supply of Anagathics. *The Tilean Alliance Military had a fortified asteroid at the edge of their Spinward territory and had raised taxes to pay for the construction of a second. *The Protector of the Council has a harem of half a dozen “bunnies”. *K’Krin pre-films all the interior shots of his races. *The Lee Interorbital team were staging their off-race quarrels for the benefit of their sponsors. Clarice was eager to join the party but quickly was lost in the darkness. Where a number of people were involved in carnal relations in the mysterious darkness. After the party died down they started getting ready to leave. J’Jin advised them that she could shift the computer glasses locally and the rest of their cargo could be sold easily on Jean. They also wanted to find an expert who could identify the anagathics they held and refine them into a usable or sellable product. That night they were approached by an enterprising young man of about 14 who offered to sell them his holos and film collection for 1,000 credits. They accepted and invited J’Jin to come with them to Jean where she had some contacts. On the way out K’Krin left a message that the translation software badly mangled. J’Jin eventually explained that K’Krin was challenging them to a duel (probably not to the death, but to blood at least) for their role in manumitting her from her place in K’Krin’s team. They were informed that such duels are fought using talons (Of which humans are given a suitable combat-capable imitation). Shrugging this off they would have to deal with it at some point. They jumped for Jean and arrived on the edge of the planetary gravity well. Spotting a distant corvet guarding the local gas-giant. (thankfully after the short jump they did not need to refuel). Docking with the station was a disaster as Vomisa misjudged the distance smashing up an airlock in the process. (Station control then spent over an hour guiding the ship in remotely with tedious care and advised that the crew would be billed for the damages). Inside the station they saw nobody, only teams of Asimovs (Self-aware robots governed by the Three Laws of Robotics as laid down by the pioneer of robotics Isaac Asimov) and an uplifted Octopus who was taking a break. Heading down to Ecosystems Unlimited (The facility was in one of several vast dome-cities, due to the completely inhospitable and violent storms outside) they met Max Plank, the “corporate slave driver” of Ecosystems Unlimited. Who engaged in ritualistic threats with J’Jin. After sealing a deal for the Radioactives Max offered to put them up for the night offering them a relatively large mansion each, but they decided to share one. He made mention of some housekeepr Asimovs and wished them all a good night. Episode 5 - Simon, Adrian, Nick C and Nik J That Night a luxury yacht docked at the station bearing the Crown Prince Amatsuya Kobashi and his loyal aide Amai Koni The party settled into their residence, investigated the area a little and eventually fell asleep. Typo woke to find one of the Household Asimovs examining his stunner carefully whilst cleaning the room. In the morning Captain Heckler and Special Agent Stoll woke to find the ammunition from their pistols missing (although the Gauss pistol was fine). To further complicate things Djinn turned off her communicator and had not been seen since. However when they visited her, she seemed sick and lethargic. To replace his ammunition Cpt. Heckler headed up to the orbital station and spoke with the local chief of security Jennifer Jean Midway, who appologised for the zeal displayed by the Asimovs in protecting humanity and gave him some fresh ammunition. They attended a holo festival featuring the exploits of Glorion the Glorious Conqueror. (Inspired by this) a shocking bad holo that attained cult status.and the guests all dressed up as various characters from the film. The Crown Prince negotiated with the crew and bargained passage for his agent. During the day they gradually noticed subtle cues that something was not right. People too healthy, too happy and heavily outnumbered by Asimov units. Stoll located some of the back-channels used for communication, finding not just machine-code communications between the many Asimov units (Some of which focused on ethical, religious and philosophical problems), but also between Asimov units and the near-ubiquitous translators that most of Jean's inhabitents seemed to have. Searching in more detail they noticed unauthorized attempts to access the ships computer and install a software patch, as well as exterior repairs to the hull that were not authorized. Episode 6 - Nick C, Nik J and Rob Departing from Jean the Black Pig was still light on Cargo to take back to the Ribbon. They consulted with the new crewmember Amai Koni who suggested they pick up military surplus from New Mars on the boarder where construction had just finished on a large defensive asteroid emplacement. They jumped in but were detected and the rock sent a flight of small fighter-craft to board and investigate. They roughed up the crew a little but Amai Koni flashed some diplomatic papers and the problems melted away. Arriving on the 4th planet in the system, New Mars spaceport was a large expanse of Tarmac with a near 21st century level of technology. They decided to check out a local bar, where they met some of the local movers and shakers, including a privateer crew out of New Tortugan space who were enjoying the ability to raid their enemies with impunity and some senior officers of Silentrose who were here to oversee the refit. Throwing around credits with abandon, girls and alcohol quickly flocked to them. After a hard night of debauchery they found some details about the quartermaster in charge of the Asteroid project (A corrupt git who appreciated early settler sculpture) and a local trader named Rose who did not do receipts or records. Between the two contacts they grabbed nearly 20 tons of ship-mounted laser weapons and quickly returned back to the Ribbon (via Jean, the planet with the derelict mining ship and the planet that once had whales), stopping to repair the mining ship (once the computer was repaired, the diagnostic systems found a fault in the main reactor and a number of other systems, but these would require only minor components and some time to repair). Back in Cornerstone they were given a warm welcome among news that the crime-syndicate in control of the space elevator recently used Ortillery (Orbital bombardment artilery) to pacify a group of rebels on the surface. Temenka Galloway greeted them, happy that they had returned with a profitable cargo and arranged an auction. She also asked them to do a scouting run to the Gulag (The location of which was in the prison ships computer) with the intention of liberating the prisoners aboard (at least the ones loyal to her). with the aid of a fake inflatable battlecruiser. They decided that they needed to off-load some cargo first (the 50 Asimovs minus the one they gave as a gift to Temenka) so they set out for Nuevo Nevada, a major trade hub with a wealthy population who are more likely able to afford such luxuries. They also sent out samples of the translators that they were given to interested parties to gague interest in the local area, before setting out for Nuevo Nevada with some local freight destined for that system. Episode 7: A friendly wager - Nick C, Nik J, Simon and Adrian They arrived in Nuevo Nevada. Where they were able to dock with the large and very busy station without too much trouble. Due to a special offer there was a significant discount on docking fees if they booked at least two suites in the Solaris Hotel. A luxurious place that featured a full casino, multiple restaurants, gym, spa and extreme sports facilities. Whilst Cpt. Heckler and Ambassador Amai booked themselves into the hotel, Cpt. Stoll and special agent Typo checked out a local dive bar called the Omiga next to the baggage terminal. Stoll picked up a few things from a lost property locker and Typo enquired around about potential buyers for their shipment of goods. After some shopping and grooming Typo reported that all of the real trading happens in the high stakes gambling parlours of the hotel. They met over a meal to discuss options and also the plans for scouting of the gulag. They decided not to join the high stakes card games yet (As you needed 100,000 credits in chips to enter and the bets were usuaully in multiples of a thousand credits, with other goods up for grabs. They instead went to the fighting arena in which Heckler and Stoll decided to enter themselves into the undercard fights. Mr Shrub and his assistant Mr Jarvis. Enjoying the spectacle were easy to approach, but they dealt in high-volume cargoes and were not easily sold on the Asimovs. It was only after Stoll managed to beat his ginger opponent with a flawless victory that they had a chance at attracting another backer. Sarah Peacock beat Cpt. Heckler in the fight, but was a good fight, and promised him a drink afterward. Heckler was advised to take 3 days of bedrest to recover but volounteered to sign himself out. Shen Chao ended up purchasing all of the Asimov units for a cool 3.6 million. (Note: Bubble credits are a specifically balanced blend of Oricalcum, that feature a very specific blend of rare metals, primarily silver and gold. On the other hand, Imperial credits use pure gold tagged with specific radioctive markers that make them hard to forge. Most places Current Experience Points Nik J - 9 Nick C - 20 Adrian - 16 Duncan - 10 Simon - 16 Rob - 13